He’s one of the most iconic actors, and now he’s bringing an iconic book to the big screen. We’re talking about Harrison Ford — yes Hans Solo and Indiana Jones — he’s stepping into the shoes of John Thornton from Jack London’s novel The Call of the Wild. This take on the classic is purposefully more family friendly and blends live action with CGI. We talked with Ford about the adaptation, his love for the outdoors, and how his parents instilled a moral context.
Family Entourage: Did you read Jack London’s book, The Call of the Wild, as a child?
Harrison Ford: I read it when I was in high school because it was assigned reading. It was part of the canon of American literature and I was very pleased to read it at the time, but it didn’t really stick for me.
FE: How do you feel about the adaptation of the story for film?
HF: We took some liberties, and one of the liberties that we took, I think brought something that’s important to the story, and that is to establish a kind of parallel between what was going on in Buck’s life and what was happening in Thornton’s life. You know, in the book, Thornton arrives and solves problems, but we don’t know anything about where he comes from; we don’t know what motivates him really. And so, we constructed a story which gave us the opportunity to see the parallel of Buck finding his destiny, if you will, and Thornton resolving his issues. As Buck was gaining the confidence and the courage to face his natural self, Thornton was finding the courage to go back and face the life that he had run away from. And I thought that was an important emotional element.
FE: Harrison, when I think of you, I think of you as an outdoorsy person. You have your place in Jackson Hole, you fly planes, you own hundreds of acres… when you come in to film The Call of the Wild, it’s in the wild, yet maybe not always in the wild for you —
HF: It’s either in the wild, or Santa Clarita which is 45 minutes away through heavy traffic. [Laughter] But it worked really well. We built practical sets, which was a great value to the actors to the telling of the story for the camera to capture actors dealing with a real place and real things. But then we could add the Yukon above the first story, which was the practical set. And it turned out to give us artistic opportunities that we would have had a very hard time getting. It would have been more costly and less efficient. So, I was very pleased with it how it turned out.
FE: But, for you, when you’re in nature, what does it pull out of your personality or why do you feel so comfortable in that environment that you choose to spend your time there?
HF: Because I’m in the presence of the majesty, and the power of nature, and its Creator. I recently went on a 12-day raft trip on the Colorado river through the Grand Canyon. No phones, no contact with the outside world, occasionally I would see an airplane fly over, but that was it. And, twelve days is enough to lose touch with the complications of who you are and just allow you to slip into the place you are. And, it’s a powerful experience. You’re in the presence of timeless nature and it’s magnificent. That is what I look for, the essential aspects of life, not the noise of life.
FE: One of the themes in the film is heroism. You’ve played a lot of heroes, who has been one of yours?
HF: When I was a kid, I used to read a lot of biographies. I had a hero when I was about 10 or 12 years old and it was Abraham Lincoln. I grew up in Illinois. I had a Jewish mother and a Catholic father and both of them had fallen away from their organized religion but they were very interested in giving me and my brother a moral context. They found their moral context in service to others and a belief in social justice. That is what served as a moral compass for me as I was growing up.
The Call of the Wild is in theatres February 21
